Masonic Village in Lafayette Hill revives '40s classics variety show

By M.ENGLISH , For Journal Register News Service

Monday, March 4, 2013

“Quartet” — Dustin Hoffman’s directing debut about life in England’s (fictional) Beecham House home for retired musicians — features Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Billy Connolly and Pauline Collins in a cinematic tale about efforts to have four aging opera stars reprise their renowned “Rigoletto Quartet” for a Beecham House gala.

John Barkley is the first to admit he’s no Dustin Hoffman. But that didn’t stop him from convincing roughly a dozen musically inclined neighbors at Lafayette Hill’s Masonic Village to perform in the complex’s recent “Stage Door Canteen” variety show.

Not surprisingly, the production failed to score the media attention “Quartet” is getting. On the plus side, it didn’t ignite any of the personal squabbles that drive the movie, either. Better still, family and friends who attended the Masonic musical say it was awesome.

“We had our moments, but I think everyone ended up having a good time, and people really seemed to like it,” Barkley said. “I was so proud of everyone in the show. They really did a terrific job, and it was so great to see the encouragement the audience gave everyone.”

The “Stage Door Canteen” title is a nod to the iconic social centers begun by the American Theatre Wing to entertain and feed enlisted men and non-commissioned officers during World War II and, in particular, the 1943 film by the same name.

The latter was loaded with some of the same celebrities who routinely volunteered at the canteens — among them Judith Anderson, Tallulah Bankhead, Ralph Bellamy, Edgar Bergen, Ray Bolger, Katharine Cornell, Gracie Fields, Lynn Fontanne, Helen Hayes and Katharine Hepburn — and related the story of a G.I. who visited the New York canteen, where he met and fell for a beautiful young hostess.

“That movie and the music of that era … the 1940s … that was our inspiration,” says Barkley, an accomplished tenor who has sung with church choirs and community choruses for most of his life.

Masonic’s revue opened with his solo rendition of “I Left My Heart at the Stage Door Canteen” and concluded with the entire cast’s “I’ll Be Seeing You.”

Along the way, Barkley and fellow Masonic residents Mary Benjamin — a junior hostess at Philadelphia’s Stage Door Canteen — Barbara Whitaker, Ginny Satterthwaite, George Ginther, Jimmy Mack and Ethel Mould performed vintage oldies like “The G.I. Jive,” “You’re Just in Love,” “You’ll Never Know,” “I Don’t Want to Walk Without You,” “On the Sunny Side of the Street,” “I Can’t Say No,” “I Get a Kick Out of You,” “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows,” “Look for the Silver Lining,” “Seems Like Old Times,” “Stardust” and “Ballerina.”

Nursing staffer Micheline Dorvilier sang “La Vie en Rose” in English as well as her native French; colleague Tamara Simmons, “Besame Mucho” in English and Spanish. Visiting world class musician Frank Kaderabek, former principal trumpet with the Philadelphia Orchestra, played a Harry James medley and accompanied several numbers. Masonic volunteer Wendy Moody co-produced and also helped accompany.

Barkley was only 14 when World War II ended, but he spent four years with the National Guard and was active in the Army during the Korean War era and managed to “squeeze myself into one of my old shirts” and pair it with some khaki pants by showtime.

He also paid homage to his old military coif.

“I wear my hair short, but I delayed going to the barber ‘til right before the show so it’d be shorter than usual,” he laughs.

Barkley figures his earliest musical influence might well have been his mother, Ruth, “who used to sing as she did housework … and also listened to gospel music.”

“My dad could sing, too … and I have a younger sister who’s a good pianist and singer. But it’s my mother singing around the house that I really remember.”

Regardless, Barkley has been lending his voice to church choirs — currently at Pilgrim Church in Philadelphia’s Wissahickon section — since he was 16. He joined the Roxborough Male Chorus in 1954, and “over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to sing and do solos on several different occasions. I’ve also done directing.”

The local man was born in Camden, N.J. During the Depression, his family lived with maternal relatives in Collingswood and paternal family in Roxborough. He began elementary school in Frankford, finished it back in Roxborough and graduated from Roxborough High School in 1948. He subsequently went to work as an office boy at Philadelphia’s Link Belt and joined the National Guard. He was called up for active duty in 1950 and spent the next two years at Camp McCoy in Wisconsin and Fort Sill in Oklahoma.

Barkley married wife Carol, also an accomplished vocalist, in 1951 during a 10-day Army pass. The newlyweds set up housekeeping at Camp McCoy before returning to Roxborough, where they adopted and raised four “wonderful” children. They moved to Masonic Village two years ago, “when Carol, who has Alzheimer’s, required nursing care.” Son Paul and his family now reside in the Roxborough home the couple left behind. Son Matthew lives in Oswego, Ill.; daughters Judi and Joy in Ventura, Calif., and Harrisburg, respectively.

Following his Army discharge, Barkley did cost estimating at Link Belt before making a career switch into the insurance business. Along the way, he has also done “some writing … edited a magazine for Pennsylvania Christian Endeavor and started a newsletter for the Philadelphia Bible Society.”

Barkley describes himself as “a pretty happy guy … someone who just enjoys everything I do.” That said, he’s not sure when he’ll be staging his next musical.

“Oh, I don’t know. I didn’t have to twist arms for this one. People seemed happy to get involved, but I think I’ll take a little break before I do another one.”